The invention relates to the field of electrical connectors. More specifically, it relates to the female components of electrical connectors, of the type comprising a socket defining an approximately cylindrical internal space inside which wire contacting elements are placed, these being intended to grip, flexibly, the male component of the said connector, which has to be inserted into the said socket.
The prior art teaches of electrical connectors whose female component is composed of:
a socket defining an approximately cylindrical internal space into which the male part of the electrical connection is intended to be inserted;
a multiplicity of conductor wire elements, each of the ends of which is anchored to a rim made at a different end of the internal cylindrical space of the socket.
It is usual to angularly offset, one with respect to the other, the respective anchoring points of the two ends of each wire. Thus, an internal space, defined by the set of wires, which has a barrelled shape (called xe2x80x9chyperboloidalxe2x80x9d shape) is obtained. The effect of this barrelling is that the set of wires can grip, in a firm but flexible manner, the male component after it has been inserted into the female component. When the connector is subjected to shocks or vibrations resulting in movements of the male component inside the female component, the multiplicity of wires and the flexibility of their contact with the male component of the connector ensure that, despite the movements of this male component, its contact with at least some of the wires is always maintained. The reliability of the electrical connection thus produced is therefore guaranteed. In this way, it is possible for the duration of possible interruptions in the electrical contact to be less than 10xe2x88x929 s, which value corresponds to the level of detectability of such interruptions.
Such connectors are described, for example, in documents U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,789, U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,966, U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,527, U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,428 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,962.
These connectors are used in the aeronautical, military and railway fields in particular, in which the integrity and the constancy of the electrical contact are absolutely fundamental, particularly when the item which contains them is subjected to intense vibrations. These connectors may be produced in an extremely wide range of dimensions. They may be constructed so as to accommodate male components having diameters of the order of 10 cm or more, but also male components having diameters of the order of 0.3 mm. It is commonplace to produce such connectors able to accommodate male components having diameters from 1 to 2 mm. The wire components of the female component of the electrical connector may have a minimum diameter of 85 xcexcm, this being for the smallest connectors available on the market. The number of these wire components can vary, commonly amounting to five or six wires per connector.
These connectors therefore are extremely reliable, but have the drawback of being very expensive to produce, particularly the smallest of them. The solid elements of the female component of the connector are manufactured by screw-machining, and conventionally assembly of three different elements is needed to produce a socket allowing the wire components to be mounted in the manner described. Another difficult and expensive operation is fastening the wire components to the socket, particularly in the case of connectors having the smallest dimensions.
It is an object of the invention to provide a configuration of female components of electrical connectors of a type functionally similar to that described above but having an appreciably lower manufacturing cost.
For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a female electrical connector component of the type comprising a socket made of conducting material, defining an approximately cylindrical internal space open at one of its ends, inside which wire contacting components made of a conducting material are placed, these being intended to grip, flexibly, the male component of the said connector to be inserted into the said socket and extending from one end of the said cylindrical space to the other, characterized in that the said wire contacting components are formed from a single wire.
Preferably, the said single wire is shaped into a succession of approximately straight parts inclined at an angle xcex1 with respect to a central axis and the internal envelope of which defines an annular space centred on the said central axis.
In a preferred embodiment, the said successive approximately straight parts of the said single wire are joined by two bent portions separated by a portion lying approximately in an end plane of the conformation of the said single wire.
In another embodiment, the said successive approximately straight parts of the said single wire are joined by a single bent portion.
The single wire is held in place in the said internal space of the socket merely by its elasticity.
The single wire is also held in place in the said internal space of the socket by holding means.
The said holding means consist of a snap-riveting of the open end of the socket.
Preferably, the socket is formed by a single element.
As will have been understood, the invention essentially consists in replacing the multiple wire components providing contact between the female component and the male component of electrical connectors of the known type described above with a single wire, shaped suitably so as to grip, flexibly, the male component of the connector. After this single wire has been shaped, it is inserted into the approximately cylindrical internal space of a socket, which may itself now consist of a single component. Thus, the manufacture and assembly of the various parts making up the female component of the electrical connector are appreciably simplified.